Hostess planned for liquidation months before strike

30 Dec, 2012

Despite Hostess saying consistently that a strike by the bakers — members of its second-largest union — pushed it into liquidation mode, The Dallas Morning News reports that a 32-page document filed last week in Hostess’ bankruptcy case shows that in July or August 2011 the company hired a consultant who estimated that the liquidation value of the company’s assets, on the high end, was about $522 million. The report is dated Aug. 30, 2012, and parts of it have been reported earlier. A different consultant said in court recently that the company’s assets could fetch $1 billion.

Hostess said it expects to file binding “stalking horse” bids for many of its brands in January, followed by a four-week auction process to allow competing bids.